The notorious Aurangabad arms haul case hearing has gone underway at long last. Beginning with 3rd February 2014 the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act court will resume trial that will continue on 4th and subsequent days. Only a couple of weeks ago Riyaz Ahmed Ramzan was released on bail.
Riyaz with his mother on the left, sister in the middle;
on the right is his septuagenarian father
His bail was the second after Javed Mohammad Abdul Majid’s. It looks now clear in hindsight that the Delhi police and Nagpur police as well as the ATS of Maharashtra were on a mission to frame innocent Muslim youths who had been active in the juggernaut of improving the moral characters of the fellow Muslims and do community social service. The accused in the arms haul did not know each other except a couple of them hailing from the same towns. Bilal was also innocent but a month ago he paid 40000 rupees to ATS to let him visit his ailing mother. There was no crime record of him and he too was framed in the arms haul case. He has been put back into prison after only half a day freedom to visit his mother. All of them have been in prison for more than seven years.
In any other country this would have been settled through court proceedings. Even Spain released Roshan Jamal Khan on 16th January 2014after six years thanks to the positive role played by Indian media coverage which highlighted his innocence.[‘The mental torture was devastating’. Asian Age , Mumbai edition 25 January 2014] He was arrested for having links to Pakistan. “I was a part of an Islamic reformation group and some Pakistanis had become friends as we offered namaaz together” on 18 January2008 which was Moharram day. “I was offering namaaz at the the mosque Ayub Ansari. Suddenly an explosion took place and armed, masked policemen barges in. they shouted that we were terrorists.”
Roshan Jamal Khan
He is a native of Mumbai and an alumnus of St Xavier’s in Mumbai who fought his case in the European Court of Human Rights. “Nobody helped me except the Indian media.” Like him Javed, Riyaz, Bilal and the rest arrested in the arms haul are natives of Maharashtra and yet there is no light seen at the end of the tunnel such is the dark life of the dungeon for them. Unfortunately for the natives of India there exists no such court of human rights violation. It has MCOCA courts instead fashioned on the ideology of the extreme nationalist parties like BJP and Shive Sena and has Congress as a by stander to watch the travail of the innocents languishing in prisons. It had irked even the President of India Pranab Mukherji. He remarked in his Republic Day speech that if you have promised something to the people then you must fulfill or people would be disillusioned. For the fair minded and wise this was a timely hint. But India is not devoid of humanity. Hemant Karkare ATS chief at the time of Khan’s arrest had arranged for Jamal Khan to have phone contact with family which Jamal Khan maintained till his release. Indian citizens including the arms haul case accused have no such facility. KP Raghuvanshi and Rakesh Maria (the two who succeed Karkare) are devoid of this human touch to whom innocent Muslims are the fodder in their war on terrorism which the late Karkare called in his last interview as “politics of terrorism”.
Karkare so endeared the fair minded of all sections and age that in the recent Urdu Book Fair in Malegaon children visited the book stalls to buy a book on who had killed Karkare by fondly calling him “kurkure” child fast food. They bought the book for their elders to read as they were pupils of the surrounding schools where the book fair was organized. They just tucked their copies in their satchel and scampered away home.
From this sunny atmosphere when you enter into the world of the innocent framed in terror charges you feel dismayed by the dismal and murky scene. The police cars from ATS, Nagpur and Delhi were chasing the Indica and Sumo Tata which were allegedly bringing the arms from Mumbai to Aurangabad. The Delhi police had already alerted the ATS of Maharashtra which could have stopped the two cars at Mumbai itself or at the most at any check post. It takes six hours at the least to travel from Mumbai to Malegaon and nearly nine hours to Aurangabad. A simple phone call at the check post or barricade would have ended the movement of the huge amount of arms. But what happened actually is incredibly stupid and suspicious from day one. Stupid first: the police cars were chasing the Indica and Sumo Tata. It is improbable that the chase would last full eight hours or more given the fact that the two cars were clearly identified. The coops were harnessed with wireless sets of communication.
Second, the said Indica and Sumo were seized at the Ghuneshwar temple near Khuldabad. Both the cars were brought to the police station at Khuldabad. The cars were stopped and checked on 9th May 2006. The crime was registered at the Khuldabad station. However the strangest thing is that the police let the Indica move away from there and reach Malegaon in the evening and roam around the town and was ‘seized’ again on 12th May 2006.
In the meantime the police held press briefing where in the evening of 9th May SP Lakshumi Narayan of ATS and the Dy SP of Aurangabad Brajesh Singh not only told these details of the seizure but also gave details of the three inmates travelling in the cars had escaped from the scene at the temple. [ See the facsimile of Sham Nama of 10th May 2006]. Bajesh Singh also gratuitously offered the news that there was no intention of the terrorists blowing the famed Bhuneshwar templt at Ellora. The accused included the driver Zubair of Aurangabad. According to information he supplied the police also arrested Mohammad Ami Shakeel Ahmad Shaikh.
When this was already done in the case of the two cars seized and the driver arrested and three escaped and others arrested what is the point in the arms again being found at the Ankai dry well and at Malegaon. In Malegaon the police raided the shop of Abdullah from where they seized another consignment of arms from the same Indica!!! Surprisingly the police did not arrest the owner Abdullah but arrested others who were blamed for having links with Zabiuddin. Their phone records show that they had never known those arrested from Aurangabad or had contacted them on phone.
The Aurangabad arms haul case is the mother of all bogus cases of framing Muslim youths for the crimes committed by the Hindutva adherents in which the police were hand in glove with them. When the cases are dissolved and truth comes to light the police will naturally be guilty of perjury. Their torture of the innocent and extracting confessions constitute what is simply: willful giving of false testimony or withholding of material facts or evidence while under oath in a judicial proceeding.
How the politicians are strange bedfellows of these is evinced in the fact that simultaneously what had happened in Malegaon, Aurangabad at the temple and at the dry well in Ankai near Manmad there was a press meeting in Mumbai on 9th May 2006. It was presided over by the most distinguished character in the drama of terrorism enacted in Maharashtra and the others who attended it made it well known instance of a dramatist personae gratuitously offering further role to perform. The home minister of Maharashtra RR Patil, the joint commissioner KP Raghuvanshi also in charge of Anti Terrorism Squad, DGP Dr Pasricha, and PC of Mumbai AN Roy attended dress rehearsal. Patil announced to the full gallery of reporters that it was a grand success of the arms seizure and patted the ATS for the success. What is more he went further and proudly announced the establishment of ATS divisional offices at Nagpur and Aurangabad. Such impetuosity and peremptoriness proved the dictum right: fools rush where angels fear to tread. The result is for the world to see. Even in the eighth year of the arrest of the innocents the police have not been able to prove anything. The trial court is giving bail to the accused because there is no proof against any of them not even against Zabiuddin who masterminded the arms haul because he was the police informer par excellent. He fell in their trap!
1.
http://www.asianage.com/mumbai/mental-torture-was-devastating-767
Asian Age , Mumbai edition 25 January 2014
2.
Riyaz with his mother on the left, sister in the middle;
on the right is his septuagenarian father
His bail was the second after Javed Mohammad Abdul Majid’s. It looks now clear in hindsight that the Delhi police and Nagpur police as well as the ATS of Maharashtra were on a mission to frame innocent Muslim youths who had been active in the juggernaut of improving the moral characters of the fellow Muslims and do community social service. The accused in the arms haul did not know each other except a couple of them hailing from the same towns. Bilal was also innocent but a month ago he paid 40000 rupees to ATS to let him visit his ailing mother. There was no crime record of him and he too was framed in the arms haul case. He has been put back into prison after only half a day freedom to visit his mother. All of them have been in prison for more than seven years.
In any other country this would have been settled through court proceedings. Even Spain released Roshan Jamal Khan on 16th January 2014after six years thanks to the positive role played by Indian media coverage which highlighted his innocence.[‘The mental torture was devastating’. Asian Age , Mumbai edition 25 January 2014] He was arrested for having links to Pakistan. “I was a part of an Islamic reformation group and some Pakistanis had become friends as we offered namaaz together” on 18 January2008 which was Moharram day. “I was offering namaaz at the the mosque Ayub Ansari. Suddenly an explosion took place and armed, masked policemen barges in. they shouted that we were terrorists.” 
Roshan Jamal Khan
He is a native of Mumbai and an alumnus of St Xavier’s in Mumbai who fought his case in the European Court of Human Rights. “Nobody helped me except the Indian media.” Like him Javed, Riyaz, Bilal and the rest arrested in the arms haul are natives of Maharashtra and yet there is no light seen at the end of the tunnel such is the dark life of the dungeon for them. Unfortunately for the natives of India there exists no such court of human rights violation. It has MCOCA courts instead fashioned on the ideology of the extreme nationalist parties like BJP and Shive Sena and has Congress as a by stander to watch the travail of the innocents languishing in prisons. It had irked even the President of India Pranab Mukherji. He remarked in his Republic Day speech that if you have promised something to the people then you must fulfill or people would be disillusioned. For the fair minded and wise this was a timely hint. But India is not devoid of humanity. Hemant Karkare ATS chief at the time of Khan’s arrest had arranged for Jamal Khan to have phone contact with family which Jamal Khan maintained till his release. Indian citizens including the arms haul case accused have no such facility. KP Raghuvanshi and Rakesh Maria (the two who succeed Karkare) are devoid of this human touch to whom innocent Muslims are the fodder in their war on terrorism which the late Karkare called in his last interview as “politics of terrorism”.
Karkare so endeared the fair minded of all sections and age that in the recent Urdu Book Fair in Malegaon children visited the book stalls to buy a book on who had killed Karkare by fondly calling him “kurkure” child fast food. They bought the book for their elders to read as they were pupils of the surrounding schools where the book fair was organized. They just tucked their copies in their satchel and scampered away home.
From this sunny atmosphere when you enter into the world of the innocent framed in terror charges you feel dismayed by the dismal and murky scene. The police cars from ATS, Nagpur and Delhi were chasing the Indica and Sumo Tata which were allegedly bringing the arms from Mumbai to Aurangabad. The Delhi police had already alerted the ATS of Maharashtra which could have stopped the two cars at Mumbai itself or at the most at any check post. It takes six hours at the least to travel from Mumbai to Malegaon and nearly nine hours to Aurangabad. A simple phone call at the check post or barricade would have ended the movement of the huge amount of arms. But what happened actually is incredibly stupid and suspicious from day one. Stupid first: the police cars were chasing the Indica and Sumo Tata. It is improbable that the chase would last full eight hours or more given the fact that the two cars were clearly identified. The coops were harnessed with wireless sets of communication.
Second, the said Indica and Sumo were seized at the Ghuneshwar temple near Khuldabad. Both the cars were brought to the police station at Khuldabad. The cars were stopped and checked on 9th May 2006. The crime was registered at the Khuldabad station. However the strangest thing is that the police let the Indica move away from there and reach Malegaon in the evening and roam around the town and was ‘seized’ again on 12th May 2006.
In the meantime the police held press briefing where in the evening of 9th May SP Lakshumi Narayan of ATS and the Dy SP of Aurangabad Brajesh Singh not only told these details of the seizure but also gave details of the three inmates travelling in the cars had escaped from the scene at the temple. [ See the facsimile of Sham Nama of 10th May 2006]. Bajesh Singh also gratuitously offered the news that there was no intention of the terrorists blowing the famed Bhuneshwar templt at Ellora. The accused included the driver Zubair of Aurangabad. According to information he supplied the police also arrested Mohammad Ami Shakeel Ahmad Shaikh.
When this was already done in the case of the two cars seized and the driver arrested and three escaped and others arrested what is the point in the arms again being found at the Ankai dry well and at Malegaon. In Malegaon the police raided the shop of Abdullah from where they seized another consignment of arms from the same Indica!!! Surprisingly the police did not arrest the owner Abdullah but arrested others who were blamed for having links with Zabiuddin. Their phone records show that they had never known those arrested from Aurangabad or had contacted them on phone.
The Aurangabad arms haul case is the mother of all bogus cases of framing Muslim youths for the crimes committed by the Hindutva adherents in which the police were hand in glove with them. When the cases are dissolved and truth comes to light the police will naturally be guilty of perjury. Their torture of the innocent and extracting confessions constitute what is simply: willful giving of false testimony or withholding of material facts or evidence while under oath in a judicial proceeding.
How the politicians are strange bedfellows of these is evinced in the fact that simultaneously what had happened in Malegaon, Aurangabad at the temple and at the dry well in Ankai near Manmad there was a press meeting in Mumbai on 9th May 2006. It was presided over by the most distinguished character in the drama of terrorism enacted in Maharashtra and the others who attended it made it well known instance of a dramatist personae gratuitously offering further role to perform. The home minister of Maharashtra RR Patil, the joint commissioner KP Raghuvanshi also in charge of Anti Terrorism Squad, DGP Dr Pasricha, and PC of Mumbai AN Roy attended dress rehearsal. Patil announced to the full gallery of reporters that it was a grand success of the arms seizure and patted the ATS for the success. What is more he went further and proudly announced the establishment of ATS divisional offices at Nagpur and Aurangabad. Such impetuosity and peremptoriness proved the dictum right: fools rush where angels fear to tread. The result is for the world to see. Even in the eighth year of the arrest of the innocents the police have not been able to prove anything. The trial court is giving bail to the accused because there is no proof against any of them not even against Zabiuddin who masterminded the arms haul because he was the police informer par excellent. He fell in their trap!
1.
http://www.asianage.com/mumbai/mental-torture-was-devastating-767
Asian Age , Mumbai edition 25 January 2014
2.
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